After taxing their bullpen over a stretch of close games, after weathering the storm of a clubhouse drama gone public, after playing nearly five hours the night before, the Yankees more than anything needed a laugher. And that’s precisely what they got.

With the Subway Series looming, the Yankees steadied themselves, a point they made emphatically in a 13-2 drubbing of the Orioles tonight.

The Yankees tallied 14 hits, with eight going for extra bases. Mark Teixeira and Eduardo Nunez hit home runs while Brett Gardner, Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter added triples. Of those in the starting lineup, only Alex Rodriguez went hitless.

“A lot of guys did some good things,” Yankees captain Derek Jeter said.

With a comfortable lead, left-hander CC Sabathia settled into a groove, striking out nine in eight shutout innings. Sabathia’s most dominant performance of the season came on a night when the Yankees’ overworked bullpen needed a breather.

Nick Swisher, who had been slumping, knocked in four runs to help the Yankees improve to 6-0 this season against the Orioles, who they have outscored 51-18. After starting this four-game road trip embroiled in drama — and after watching their season-long losing streak grow to six games — the Yankees have reeled off three straight victories.

“We seemed to get things on track,” Girardi said. “This was a good time for this.”

The only intrigue had little to do with the final score. The Yankees and Orioles have had various flare-ups over the last few years, and in the early innings, that tension was apparent.

On Wednesday night, Orioles pitcher Mike Gonzalez sent outfielder Chris Dickerson to the hospital with a fastball to the head. Gonzalez insisted the pitch was not intentional and Dickerson — who spent several hours getting diagnosed with a concussion — said he didn’t think the pitcher was on purpose.

The two even went so far as to exchange hugs before the game.

But the tenor seemed to change when Bergesen hit Robinson Cano on the right leg with two outs in the first inning. With two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the first, Sabathia drilled Markakis in the small of the back.

Plate umpire Larry Vanover warned both benches.

“We move on,” Girardi said.

Sabathia shrugged off the incident, saying he was trying to pitch inside, not retaliate. Nevertheless, the Yankees had sent a message.

The Yankees needed 15 innings the night before to beat the Orioles partly because their first extra base hit of the game didn’t come until Cano’s two-run double at the tail end of the 4-hour, 56-minute marathon. It was the only extra-base hit of the game.

They needed less five minutes last night to surpass that total.

Jeter led off with a double to right and Granderson followed with a run-scoring triple that bounced off the high wall in right field. The Yankees loaded the bases for Swisher, who delivered the biggest hit of the inning, lining a ball that was just out of the reach of the left fielder Felix Pie.

Swisher clapped both hands and pointed to the sky as pulled into second base, in time to watch the plodding Jorge Posada score all the way from first. With that, the Yankees led 5-0, well on the way toward a rout.

Said Swisher: “It feels like the clouds have parted a little bit.” reliever Josh Rupe hit him in the shoulder, only narrowly missing his head.

Rupe said the pitch was not intentional, though an angry Martin believed he was targeted for having a big night.